Asked if they preferred shopping on the Internet or in brick-and-mortar stores, the largest group of responding US online buyers (38%) said they used both channels about the same amount.

Slightly more respondents (31%) to PriceGrabber.com's "Back to School Survey" said they preferred making their purchases online than said they preferred buying in physical retail stores (27%).



As retailers turn their attention toward the holiday season, it is useful to look at the shopping channels consumers used last year. Shop.org's eHoliday Mood Study, conducted during the 2007 holiday shopping season, showed how consumers divided their holiday purchases among retailers' stores, Websites and catalogs.

A total of 63% of US online buyers surveyed made their holiday purchases in two or three retail channels as of the end of November 2007. That number would have been even higher if consumers who researched products in one channel and then bought them in another were included.

Responding online buyers in the Shop.org study who expressed a preference for one channel over another were slightly more likely to favor brick-and-mortar retail stores (18.28%) over online stores (17.78%).